Young Adult Book of the Month
May 2025
Treacle Town. Written by Brian Conaghan
Con O'Neill is stuck in a world of brutal gang violence, sectarian vendettas and personal tragedy. The lack of opportunities for him and the rest of his gang is all too apparent. No money. No prospects. A social design that entraps inhabitants of Treacle Towns up and down the country. Connor is desperate to get away, to find another life where he can experience happiness and fulfilment. When he stumbles upon the new world of slam poetry, Con senses a glimmer of hope - a hope that might just lead to his escape from Treacle Town. But it won't be easy.
April 2025
Glasgow Boys. Written by Margaret McDonald
This coming-of-age story is an incisive look at young masculinity and the way even the most fraught childhood is not without hope.
Neither Finlay or Banjo can remember the last time they had a hug. Against all odds, 18-year-old Finlay has begun his nursing degree at Glasgow University. But coming straight from the care system means he has no support network. How can he write essays, focus on his nursing placement and stop himself from falling in love when he's struggling to even feed himself?
Meanwhile, 17-year-old Banjo is trying to settle into his new foster family and finish high school, desperate to hold down his job and the people it contains. But his anger and fear keep boiling over, threatening his already uncertain future. Underpinning everything is what happened three years ago in their group care home, when Finlay and Banjo were as close as brothers until they stopped speaking.
March 2025
This Book Kills by Ravena Guron
When Hugh Henry Van Boren, one of the most popular and richest kids in Jess Choudhary's school, is found dead, the student body is left reeling and wondering who the murderer could be. Jess, a student under strict instructions to keep her record clean or risk losing her scholarship, finds herself at the centre of the investigation when it's revealed that Hugh died in the exact same way as a character in a short story she wrote. And then Jess receives an anonymous text thanking her for the inspiration. With time running out, Jess knows if she doesn't solve this mystery she'll finally have something in common with Hugh Henry. She'll be dead too.
February 2025
The Dos and Donuts of Love written by Adiba Jaigirdar
Shireen Malik is still reeling from the breakup with her ex-girlfriend, Chris, when she receives news that she's been accepted as a contestant on a new televised baking competition show.
This is Shireen's dream come true! Because winning will not only mean prize money, but it will also bring some much-needed attention to You Drive Me Glazy, her parents' beloved donut shop. Things get complicated, though, because Chris is also a contestant on the show.
Then, there's the very outgoing Niamh, a fellow contestant who is becoming fast friends with Shireen. Things are heating up between them, and not just in the kitchen. As the competition intensifies, Shireen will have to ignore all these factors and more - including potential sabotage - if she wants a sweet victory!
January 2025
Twenty-Four Seconds From Now by Jason Reynolds
Seventeen-year-old Neon is about to have sex with his girlfriend, Aria, for the first time.
In 24 seconds to be precise.
He's hiding in the bathroom, nervous, wanting to do everything right.
Rewind. To 24 minutes earlier where Neon rushes from work, taking the gift of fried chicken to Aria's house.
Rewind again. To 24 hours earlier when Neon's big sister has advice about sex which makes him think he probably shouldn't be listening to his friends. To 24 days earlier. To 24 weeks earlier. To 24 months earlier, when he and Aria first met.
This tender, sweet, wholesome piece of fiction discusses how to approach first sex, how to respect women, how to be gentle, how to make it about love. It shows us a refreshingly different side to male sexuality.
December 2024
Some Like it Cold by Elle McNicol
After a long absence, 18-year-old Jasper is finally heading home for the holidays - and she's keeping secrets. Arthur, a budding filmmaker, is turning the town of Lake Pristine into a small town story worthy of the big screen. His plans are disrupted by the arrival of the town's golden girl - the antagonist of his school days; a girl he's never forgotten. Jasper Montgomery is back in Lake Pristine for one reason: to say goodbye. But before long small-town tensions start to rise, and a certain brooding film buff starts to look like a very big reason to stay.
November 2024
Handle With Care Written by Louisa Reid
No one knows Ruby is pregnant - not even Ruby herself. So when she gives birth at school on a miserable February morning, her world is thrown into chaos.
Keeping the baby isn't an option, but keeping quiet about who the father of her child definitely is; because if Ruby's best friend Ashley finds out the truth, then she'll lose her too.
When Ruby finally realises what she and her baby need, somehow that doesn't seem to matter any more. So Ruby must take matters into her own hands, with tragic consequences.
October 2024
Witch by Finbar Hawkins
Set in the 17th century, a breathtaking debut, and a potential prize-winner, about the power of women, witchcraft, fury, revenge and the ties that bind us.
After witnessing the brutal murder of her mother by witch-hunters, Evey vows to avenge her and track down the killers. Fury burns in her bright and strong. But she has promised her mother that she will keep Dill, her little sister, safe.
As the lust for blood and retribution rises to fever pitch, will Evey keep true to the bonds of sisterhood and to the magick that is her destiny?
September 2024
You Could Be So Pretty by Holly Bourne
In Belle and Joni's world there are two options for girls: follow the rules of the Doctrine, apply your Mask and be a Pretty, or fight the rules, leave your face bare and become an Objectionable. But maybe there is a third option...change the rules and reclaim your power. What would you choose?
August 2024
One of us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Five students walk into detention. Only four come out alive.
Yale hopeful Bronwyn has never publicly broken a rule.
Sports star Cooper only knows what he's doing in the baseball diamond.
Bad boy Nate is one misstep away from a life of crime.
Prom queen Addy is holding together the cracks in her perfect life.
And outsider Simon, creator of the notorious gossip app at Bayview High, won't ever talk about any of them again.
He dies 24 hours before he could post their deepest secrets online. Investigators conclude it's no accident. All of them are suspects.
Everyone has secrets, right?
What really matters is how far you'll go to protect them.
July 2024
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers.
To Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red thief from the poverty-stricken Stilts where the only possible future is conscription into the empire's endless war, it seems like nothing will ever change, especially now her brothers and her best friend have all been called up to spill their blood for their oppressor.
Then she finds herself recruited to work in the Silver Palace by an enigmatic stranger who turns out to be none other than the crown prince himself, Tiberias Calore. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that she possesses a deadly power of her own - one that threatens to upend their entire world order.
Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to Maven Calore, their future king's brother. Even though she knows one misstep means certain death, Mare still works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, in a desperate guerrilla effort to bring down the Silver regime once and for all.
But this is a world not only of ultimate bloodshed but also of ultimate betrayal, and Mare has been sucked into a dangerous dance - Red against Silver, prince against prince, brother against brother, head against heart . . .
June 2024
The Night Itself by Zoe Marriott
When Mio steals the family's katana, a priceless ancestral sword, from her parents attic, she just wants to spice up a fancy-dress costume. But the katana is much more than some dusty antique and her actions unleash a terrible, ancient evil onto the streets of unsuspecting London. Soon Shinobu, a fearless warrior boy, appears to protect Mio,
and threatens to steal her heart. With the gods and monsters of Japanese myth stalking her and her friends, Mio realizes that if she cannot keep the sword safe, and learn to control its legendary powers, she will lose not only her own life ... but the love of a lifetime.